Small world and hang cleans

I recently joined the 21st century through Facebook. In the vastness of our world, and my poor ability to pick up the phone and call long, lost friends, I never realized how quickly Facebook could make our world a small, small one. In a matter of days, I was reliving the long lost past and catching up with old friends. It was AWESOME. And not to mention the ego boost I got from people wanting to be my friend. :) In this small, small world that exists on Facebook, I received a message from the woman I worked for right out of college named Andrea. She taught me everything I needed and wanted to know about coffee and managing a coffee shop. She gave me valuable insight as I was building my own business because she owns and operates an amazing independent coffee shop in Alexandria, VA called Misha's.

Anyway, the amazing thing about hearing from her is that she is a crossfit trainer and opening her own affiliate in VA soon. To make the world even smaller, I was cruising around on youtube.com looking for a video, and there she was, front and center in a hang clean video. Pretty fun! It amazes me, and scares me all at the same time how quickly our world can be minimized by technology and things like Facebook.

With the fluff out of the way, let's talk about the hang clean. Here are 3 main points I want you to think about. Proper form and technique are SUPER important as we continue down the path of improvement and strength, and it helps to prevent injury! So read, absorb and next time we do the hang clean, let's all do it right!!

1. The Preparation

Stand with barbell with over hand grip slightly wider than shoulder width. Bend knees and hips so barbell touches mid-thigh; shoulders over bar with back arched. Arms are straight with elbows pointed along bar.

2. The Execution

Jump upward fully extending the hips. Shrug shoulders and pull barbell upward with arms allowing elbows to flex out to sides, keeping bar close to body. Aggressively pull body under bar, rotating elbows quickly around bar. Catch bar on shoulders while moving into squat position. Hitting bottom of squat, stand up immediately.

3. The Return

Bend knees slightly and lower barbell to mid-thigh position.